Will Mikael Barzalona be celebrating again on Daryz?

Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: Big-race preview for ParisLongchamp

Horse Racing

Tue September 29, 2026 · 4d ago

John Ingles looks ahead to Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe where Daryz will bid to become the first colt this century to retain his title.

Fillies Treve and Enable managed to win back-to-back Arcs this century but it’s a long time since a colt achieved that feat. The last to do so was Alleged with Lester Piggott in 1977 and 1978, though for most three-year-old colts who win the Arc, it’s a quick ticket to a stallion career rather than another year in training.

Arc winners Bago, Hurricane Run and Workforce were three colts who did come back to defend their Arc titles this century, though none did so successfully, so last year’s winner Daryz is attempting something no colt has done for nearly 50 years.

He looks a worthy favourite, though, and while his trial win in the Prix Foy, when readily brushing aside the Coronation Cup winner Bay City Roller, isn’t his best piece of form, it served the purpose of putting his disappointing run at Royal Ascot firmly behind him while teeing him up nicely for another Arc bid.

A couple of impressive wins over shorter trips at Longchamp in the spring suggested Daryz is at least as good as he was last year, and his excellent trainer will have had this mapped out as his major target all season. Daryz hasn’t put a foot wrong in all his starts at Longchamp, and while testing conditions would have been an unknown for him, it doesn’t look like being any worse than the good to soft ground he won on last year which is not the forecast, on the other hand, that Bay City Roller's connections would have wanted.

Ryan Moore powers clear on Diamond Necklace

Aidan O'Brien's trio of entries who remain engaged at the time of writing – Diamond Necklace, Benvenuto Cellini and Minnie Hauk, who hasn’t looked the same filly this year that ran Daryz to a head 12 months ago – would each need to bounce back from below-par runs last time and bigger dangers to Daryz from across the Channel are last month’s York winners Kalpana and Maltese Cross.

Adding the mares’ allowance to Kalpana’s Timeform rating of 128 makes her a serious threat to Daryz on paper, more so than when she finished only seventh behind him in last year’s renewal when little went right for her. However, Kalpana’s King George form, when beating Daryz’s stablemate Calandagan, has taken some knocks since and Kalpana herself had nothing to spare when having a hard race in the Yorkshire Oaks last time with Minnie Hauk back in third. It will be some training performance from Andrew Balding to get her to peak for a second time this season but she’s nothing if not tough.

Great Voltigeur winner Maltese Cross has the least progress to make among the three-year-olds to trouble Daryz. He's also no stranger to Longchamp, having had the subsequent Prix Niel winner Varandir back in a close fourth when winning the Grand Prix de Paris over course and distance in July. More will be needed against fellow son of Sea The Stars Daryz, but Maltese Cross is going from strength to strength, with his only defeat this year coming in a soft-ground Derby behind Christmas Day whom he then beat handsomely last time.

The Blandford Stakes isn't normally an Arc trial but Joseph O’Brien’s impressive Oaks winner Thundering On got her season back on track in that contest last time. Epsom was the only time she’s tackled a mile and a half, so she’s completely unexposed at the trip, though much like Maltese Cross, she’ll need to make that step forward to trouble the favourite if he’s anywhere near his best.

Dylan Browne McMonagle celebrates aboard Thundering On

While I’m always interested in challengers from the Far East, I’m finding it hard to work up too much enthusiasm for either of this year’s pair of Japanese hopefuls Admire Terra and Meisho Tabaru. The former was actually first across the line in last year’s Japan Cup but without his jockey who’d been unshipped leaving the stalls and Meisho Tabaru looks to have the better CV of the pair with a Timeform rating of 124. He landed the Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen for the second year running under Yutaka Take last time, beating Croix du Nord who himself got the better of Daryz in the Prix du Prince d’Orange before then finishing down the field in last year’s Arc.

Meisho Tabaru, by the way, is another son of the quirky Gold Ship like Orfevre who memorably threw away almost certain victory for Japan in 2012.

Prix Vermeille eye-catcher Sunly would be more interesting among those at longer prices if she did end up taking her chance and is still in the race at this stage, though I’d think it’s more likely she’ll go for Saturday’s Prix de Royallieu instead.

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